Entries Tagged 'Elections' ↓

Funny how the treasurer who told me all along he wasn’t Alex’s campaign manager knows so much about the strategy that was used. Matt was Alex’s campaign manager and everyone knew it. It was one of the lousiest lies I have ever heard in a campaign. But telling the truth doesn’t win elections.

While I will agree with some of his points, let’s simply this;

• Raised a buttload of money (from the banksters and develpers) and spent around 10X more than his opponent.

• Campaigned 3X longer than his opponent.

• Used the extra time from a delayed election to campaign more to primary voters that don’t normally vote in city elections.

• Used the list of Mayor TenHaken’s supporters from 2018 to turn the tide in the SE districts. I figured they were going to do this early on. I got tipped off by a mole that was the list they were working from months ago.

There was no grand mystery here, it was really simple math that made Jensen the 6th member of the RS5. MONEY! And lots of it.

There has been a story circulating in our local rag that Stehly lost the race because her supporters did not show up and she was mean to Neitzert.

Hogwash!

First off, Stehly and Jensen both probably got more votes than any city councilor in the history of our city. Just because Theresa lost by 97 votes doesn’t mean her support wasn’t there.

As for Neitzert, she did the right thing by fighting him on all of his misguided votes on the administration building, the internal auditor and the Bunker Ramp and many more issues. If anything, her battles with him helped her.

I have said if the election was held on April 14th it would have been a landslide for her. Why? Because the normal percentage of voters who pay attention to city politics would have shown up and cast the appropriate informed vote. Covid threw a wrench in it. Not to mention the lackluster training of the poll workers, something virtually not brought up in the hit piece and the enormous amount of money from the banksters and developers spent on her opposing candidate.

This did not clearly happen. A bunch of uninformed, partisan, primary voters showed up to elect a ‘real’ establishment Republican to the city council, not having a clue that this was a non-partisan race. They may have been confused why there wasn’t an R or D behind their names. It was a perfect storm to get the partisan hack clems to show up to vote that think city government is about party politics. It is not, but this current administration and his lackeys have turned it into us against them.

Local government is about all of us. Republican, Democratic, Independent, minority, gay, straight, religious or non-religious and those of us who just don’t give a damn. Theresa lost because 98 more ignorant fools voted for the other guy. The math is really that simple.

UPDATE: Guest Post from Theresa Stehly;

I want to thank the members of the recount board: Jon Hansen-Del Rapids, Rodney Steele-Brookings and my attorney Randy Seiler-Fort Pierre. These men crossed party lines on June 24th and worked collaboratively to examine approximately 29,000 ballots. They all made transparency and citizen accountability the top priority of the day. I feel confident that every allowable vote was counted.

I also want to thank City Council Clerk Tom Grecko , County Auditor Bob Litz , City Attorney Stacy Koistra and all election support staff for running an efficient recount day. In the end, I lost by 97 votes.

As I leave this council position, I want the citizens to know that I served them with a loving heart.  I always tried protect their best interests and  to help them whenever I could.

I wish Alex Jensen the best.  I pray that he will serve the people with the responsiveness and caring respect they deserve.

God bless you all,

Theresa Stehly

As I have said before, I didn’t want my friend Theresa running for re-election. It was taking a toll on her that I didn’t like. It changed her in ways that were positive, but in more ways made her more bitter, angry and suspicious of government.

She worked hard. I probably spent more hours on the phone talking to her about policy then she did in meetings. It was a wrestling match that I did not enjoy, because solving those problems are hard. Very Hard!

She HATED secrecy and corruption, and it showed everytime she turned on her microphone at public meetings.

We will never see another Theresa Stehly in city government again. I don’t say this lightly. It makes me very sad and discouraged. We have allowed a bunch of toddlers take over the city, and soon we will be paying the price. You will see.

But don’t think Theresa is going to ride off in the sunset. It’s not her nature. When a door closes on her, another one opens. I think we will see that.

I want to congratulate Jensen, he won fair and square (besides the money).

Kids, it’s always about ‘The money’. If you don’t have it, you don’t win.

I guess I can’t call Jensen a Count anymore, he is now known as RE-Count Jensen, LOL!

So isn’t it interesting that the re-count manual was changed on June 3rd? The good news is that the manual that existed on the day of the election is what stands, not the changed one. I have not reviewed either manual, so I do not know the changes, but by law, the one that existed on June 2nd is that one that applies to the city election and recount. Curious what changes were made and the curious timing of those changes.

This is a wonderful podcast of Tara talking about her friend Theresa and the recount.

As you can see below, the games will begin next Wednesday and it will take three days to comb it over. Not sure, but if the recount needs to be extended past that time, a court may get involved. I am not going to hold my breath and say this will be over next Friday.

Update III: Recount will happen at 9 am next Wednesday, June 24

UPDATE II: The one thing that often makes me laugh about the right wing talking machine is how stupid they think people are. The latest statement made me scratch my head from that POS blog 40 minutes to the North;

Sioux Falls City Councilors do receive a salary. And the word is that Theresa continues to get paid as long as this drags out.  I’m told that in addition to monthly car & cell phone allowances, councilors receive a paycheck which Theresa will still have coming in as long as this recount takes.

Does he realize, whether Theresa is on the council or Alex, they would both be getting paid. It really is a neutral sum. Taxpayers are still on the hook either way. He is really grasping at straws.

UPDATE: Theresa has confirmed the appointment of Retired Judge Rodney Steele for the neutral party representing the City Clerk in the recount. While I have never been keen on Judge Steele’s light sentence for Wild Bill for running over Randy Scott and blaming it on a Diet Coke, I still think he would be a fair juror. I just think if she keeps denying applicants, this could go down hill even more. Let’s get this recount on.

Thoughts?

I want you to know, I took a lot of joy in the fact that Stehly chose Randy as her attorney. It reaffirms her commitment to NON-PARTISAN government in Sioux Falls. It doesn’t matter what color of stripes her representative comes from, as long as they can put up the good fight. He will.

But it often harkens back to when I helped Councilor Erickson with the school start date campaign, and how she gathered up assistance from all stripes of the political spectrum, as she should have, now she seems to spitting and spattering out the tired old partisan hackery of Theresa being a (lifelong) Republican but asking someone of another party to help. Oh, Christine, how you have lost your way. And to think I had high hopes for you.

I hope and believe the laundry list below gets a good washing.

You have to remember, this is NOT a referendum on Big T and Alex, this is a referendum on the job City Clerk Tom Greco did. Remember, before Tom was hired he wasn’t even registered to vote (yet we asked him to run our elections). That’s kind of like asking a diesel mechanic to be in charge of the church bake sale.

While most will be rubbing their brows about the Jensen team (I am not, I expected this motley crew) Greco’s first choice of Jack Marsh left me baffled. I said to someone today, “Does Tom think Theresa is that stupid to accept his first choice?” Oh, Brother.

City Councilor Theresa Stehly has until 5 PM on Tuesday to file her re-count intentions. As far as I know she intends to do that. After that Jensen has 3 days to pick a representative (likely a lawyer) in which I’m not even sure if he has one yet, because who I thought it might be may have backed out.

The city clerk also has 3 days to pick an independent person for review (likely an outside attorney). Some names in that ballpark have been thrown around, but nothing definitive. One of the names I heard is a real rat, and I am being kind. Either way, Stehly and Jensen must both agree on the independent person, so that process could take a few days.

After that I suspect some silly motions in court to stop the recount before it starts on a technicality. I’m not sure if that would hold up in court since a recount can be called within a 2% margin and I believe the margin in this race was around .05%. There will also be a legal battle about what votes can be reviewed and looked at, like undervotes and spoiled ballots. There is also the possibility of absentee ballots that arrived on Tuesday before 7 PM that didn’t get opened and counted (I think these ballots are the lynchpin because Stehly won the absentee ballot part of the race).

Once the logistics of what votes can be counted then the counting can start, which I don’t think will last more than 2-3 days. But who knows at this point. I suspect the process all together could take 2-3 weeks. Stehly remains on the council until the process is finished and an installation ceremony is scheduled, which I suspect will be almost immediate, especially if Jensen wins.

While some don’t have much confidence Stehly can turn the tide, I actually am hopeful she can and been having a weird feeling lately that she will. I’ve never felt this confident about an election before. Of course all the stars will have to align, and we know that isn’t possible because of the hatred towards Stehly and her policy ideas. If the re-count happens, this will be more explosive than the fireworks at Mt. Rushmore and a historic moment in city politics. If anything, it will be a fun one to watch.

Funny how these things change in a matter of days. Last Wednesday night Alex Jensen and his Campaign Treasurer, Matt Paulson proclaimed if Alex would have lost by 110 votes, he would request a recount also. Heck, as I understand it, Alex already has an attorney hired to handle the recount. But now there seems to be some ‘Fake’ outrage from city councilors (mainly Erickson) that this is going to cost taxpayers money. Last I checked, that is usually the case, unless of course City Clerk Greco and Auditor Litz would like to volunteer their time for the recount? There will also be a judge and other city employees involved. But wouldn’t we be paying them anyway to show up to work?

It’s funny how all of sudden Erickson is a fiscal conservative when trying to save dollars on a recount but doesn’t blink an eye about the millions wasted on these projects that she proudly went along with;

State Theatre ($1.5 million)

EC Siding Siding ($1 million FAKE settlement – NO warranty)

Bunker Ramp ($26 million and counting)

Administration Building HVAC replacement

Ski Lift at Great Bear

New roof on Pavilion

As one my former co-workers used to say about my former boss, “He’s concerned about saving pennies while dollars are flying out the window.” Christine, take your fake fiscal outrage and shove it! Elections are important, especially recounts, this is not the time to worry about a couple of grand while millions are flying out the window due to your very bad decisions.